BoB Conference: VMware Pushes Partners To Explore Mobility, SDDC

VMware made its fortune with server virtualization software, but the company now wants partners to embrace new opportunities.

Speaking Tuesday at the 2013 Best of Breed Conference, hosted by CRN publisher The Channel Company, Frank Rauch, vice president of VMware's Americas Partner Organization, talked about his company's new efforts around software-defined data center, end-user computing and mobility, and hybrid cloud services.

"We've virtualized the data center. Now people want to federate out of the data center," Rauch said. "This was a planned outcome for where we needed to be."

Rauch said that as IT workloads continue to move out of the data center, VMware wants to help partners move with them. According to VMware's internal sales data, all three areas -- SDDC products, vCloud Hybrid Service and VMware's mobility solutions like Horizon -- are all growing at 20 percent or more annually.

In addition, Rauch said VMware will apply the same channel-centric approach to those new markets as it does with server virtualization. "We're still doing 85 percent of sales through the channel," he said. "That number never wavered, and it is sustainable."

Specifically, Rauch said VMware wouldn't engage in walling off certain large enterprise accounts from partners. "In fact," he said, "we're going the other way. All segments for VMware are partner-led."

Rauch said VMware's new rules of engagement for partners will allow solution providers to set the pricing and control the client relationship for all partner-led accounts. In addition, Rauch also said VMware recently introduced new deal registration opportunities and incentives for partners.

Mike Dillon, chief technology officer at Quest Technology Management, a VMware partner based in Sacramento, Calif., said his business is already engaged in cloud services and is looking at opportunities around BYOD and mobile device management.

"Mobility is an opportunity, but there's a challenge in providing end-user support," Dillon said. "A lot of larger cloud service organizations aren't end user focused, whether it's the desktop or a mobile device, and that's an opportunity for us."